Conservative MP Morin urges Albertans to vote for Canada in upcoming referendum

A First Nations Conservative MP from Alberta says he is working to ensure his province votes to remain in Canada in an upcoming referendum.

“It’s my home territory, it’s the home territory of my ancestors, it’s our land, but it’s our land that we signed with treaty to share with everybody else so there’s no way I can absolutely stay out of this,” said Billy Morin [Edmonton Northwest], who is the former chief of Enoch Cree Nation.

Alberta voters will answer a number of questions in the Oct. 19 referendum, including one on whether the province should start the process of negotiating to separate from the rest of Canada.

Some on the pro-separatist side have criticized Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and members of the federal Conservative Party for not remaining neutral on the question.

@VotetoStayAB is helping to get the message out to indigenous Albertans – to show up & vote for to Stay!

— Chief Billy Morin (@billymorinECN) October 6, 2026

In a wide-ranging interview on APTN News political show Nation to Nation, Morin also condemned the rise in residential school denialism but added he’s not quite ready to support it being considered a hate crime.

“This is a very tough subject,” he said. “I believe the healthiest societies, which Canadians should strive for, can have tough conversations. But at the end of the day when you talk about prosecuting residential school denialism as a crime – what does that even mean? I think that has to be fleshed out some more. I am for free speech as a Conservative and this is little bit too grey for me at the moment.”

The NDP has been pushing for legislation that would make residential school denialism a hate crime.

Morin also said he supports the proposed Pacific Link pipeline that runs from Alberta to the B.C. coast, but added, the Carney government is not taking consultations seriously.

“I hear from chiefs every day that they send out, with all due respect, 23-year-old kids (to do these consultation meetings),” he said. “We’ve heard from the [AFN] national chief (Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak] that the MPO (Major Projects Office) is not getting back to her to meet with chiefs. To me, it’s a bunch of announcements and a bunch of photo-ops and no results.

He added that the Carney government is just doing what the Trudeau government did, which is use us at the end of the day to make announcements.”

The grand chief of the Tlicho Nation said Indigenous groups expect a high level of consultation if the federal government plans to proceed with major economic projects of national interest in the Northwest Territories.

“There’s going to be a lot of engagement,” Jackson Lafferty said. “Any project that happens, whether it be the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Taltson Hydro Project, Arctic Economic Security Corridor, the whole national defence (investment). Any major projects that’s going forward there’s going to be a lot of community engagement.”

Lafferty was in Ottawa this week as part of a delegation that included N.W.T. Premier R. J. Simpson and a number of Indigenous leaders.

The group met with ministers in the Carney government stressing they expect the necessary community supports to go along with any federal investments in defence or trade infrastructure.

First Nations – premiers meeting

A hereditary chief of the Wet’suwet’en Nation in British Columbia told host Fraser Needham that he’s not surprised he didn’t receive an invitation to an upcoming First Ministers meeting with First Nations scheduled for later this month in Ottawa.

“I believe they will rely on elected governments, leadership through there,” Na’Moks said. “We weren’t invited to Gatineau (prime minister’s meeting with First Nations in 2025). We still went. I want to attend and I may attend.”

Na’Moks was also in Ottawa this week as part of a group of climate activists lobbying the Carney government against making investments to expand the fossil fuel industry.

A number of Indigenous leaders were part of the group.

A First Ministers meeting with First Nations is scheduled for Oct. 26 in Ottawa.